A highly contagious strain of avian flu, a huge trade pact opening export markets and a few 鈥渞estless鈥� agribusinesses top Harvest Public Media's list of the biggest agriculture and food stories of 2015.
1. Avian flu spreads 鈥� A bird flu never before seen in North America devastated the egg and turkey industries, sending prices up and the government scrambling to respond.
Federal agencies and the USDA, , may get further scrutiny as a if the government is ready with a vaccine for avian flu, among other pandemics.
Most egg and turkey producers have recovered, but as our , that鈥檚 little comfort to the experts who predict the high pathogenic H5N2 virus to return.
2. TPP Agreement 鈥� More international markets opened up for farmers and ranchers thanks to a trade pact and the repeal of a labeling law.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, was agreed upon. Increased exports to the 11 Pacific Rim counties is expected to increase U.S. trade by $3 billion.
鈥淭he TPP is expected to give U.S. farmers easier access to markets in countries like Japan and Australia by reducing tariffs on products like beef and rice,鈥� reported Kris Husted, our Missouri reporter.
Presumably, the repeal of the Country of Origin Labeling, or COOL, will also expand trade, although U.S. producers are angry about the move, saying it will limit their sales.
This month, that required the meat in groceries to have labels reporting where the product was born, raised and slaughtered. The move was pushed after if the labels didn鈥檛 go away.
3. Corporate courtship 鈥� Several big agribusinesses appeared, , 鈥渞estless鈥� this year.
Our Colorado reporter, Luke Runyon, chronicled the on-again, off-again courting by , the world鈥檚 largest producer of farm chemicals. Other big biz news included a merger of and John Deere鈥檚 purchase of Precision Planting.
4. Wild weather 鈥� Mother Nature typically takes a spot in the top ag stories each year and 2015 is no different.
In this, , climate change continues to dominate talk in relation to food production, but El Nino also played a part. As NPR鈥檚 Christopher Joyce reported:
El Nino is a natural warming cycle in the water of the western Pacific Ocean that happens every few years. That extra-warm water sloshes around the Pacific and influences weather over huge parts of the world. In many places, parts of the U.S. for example, that means warm and wet.
California would have loved the wet weather, as it suffered another year of extreme drought, affecting the state鈥檚 Central Valley, home to lots of produce production. That didn鈥檛 really help Midwestern growers, as our .
Still, there was some hope, as the climate change conference in Paris this year had more than 180 countries submitting plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
鈥淎griculture is one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change, but it is also a major cause, responsible for 19-29 percent of greenhouse gas emissions,鈥� the . 鈥淚t can also be part of the solution.鈥�
5. Consumers demand change 鈥� National chain restaurants began reacting to consumer demands and animal rights groups who called for cruelty-free food products, announcing plans to buy only , and pork produced without .
But things didn鈥檛 go so smoothly for Chipotle, the 鈥溾�� chain that was an early advocate for what it calls 鈥渇ood with integrity.鈥� The chain had several at the end of the year, sending its stock price down and its officials running to fix the food safety problems.
6. Renewable fuel standard 鈥� Ethanol was again in the headlines this year as the EPA increased its mandate on just how much of the biofuel should go in gasoline.
鈥淓thanol policy is a hot-button issue in farm states, as it is both a major element of the corn economy and a favorite target of environmental groups,鈥� .
7. GMO battle intensifies 鈥� Genetically-modified food continued to garner lots of attention this year, as the FDA approved the first GMO meat animal (salmon) and Congress took moves to label GE food.
Even though some 70 percent of our food has GMO ingredients, wrote that 鈥渋t could be years before fillets or steaks from the fast-growing salmon are sold in supermarkets.鈥�
Congress waded into the emotional debate, with the U.S. GMO labeling advocates hated and the food industry sought in hopes of quelling the call for mandatory labels. and they may take it up in 2016.
8. Food safety overhaul 鈥� An overhaul of the nation鈥檚 food safety system, long promised by the FDA and protested by many groups, , finally came in November. The FDA called it 鈥渁 giant step forward鈥� in reducing the 48 million Americans who are sickened by foodborne illness every year, but a food safety expert said the .
9. Crop prices tank 鈥� The farm economy struggled to gain the steam other sectors enjoyed, with income dropping, thanks to lower crop and livestock prices, and . The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reported in November that , creating worries headed into the new year.
10. "Ag-gag" struck down 鈥� In what might be the death knell for the so-called 鈥渁g gag鈥� laws, an Idaho court struck down that state鈥檚 law that makes it illegal to take undercover videos on farms.
As our , the ruling has heartened animal-rights activists who plan to challenge other state ag-gag measures.
Peggy Lowe is investigations editor for Harvest Public Media. You can find her on Twitter, @Peggyllowe.
